Overview
ABSTRACT
Human behavior and the intensive use of plastic, combined with poor performance of management systems have led to a massive accumulation of plastic debris in the marine environment, accounting for 50 to 80 % of all marine litter. Their distribution, their fate, their degradation and their impacts stem directly from their composition and use properties. This article reviews knowledge and describes the main scientific, environmental and socio-economic issues, as well as the possible solutions needed to manage an environmental problem that has become global.
Read this article from a comprehensive knowledge base, updated and supplemented with articles reviewed by scientific committees.
Read the articleAUTHORS
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François GALGANI : Project manager, IFREMER/ LER/PAC (Bastia)
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Stéphane BRUZAUD : Professor, Université de Bretagne-Sud, IRDL, UMR CNRS 6027 (Lorient)
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Guillaume DUFLOS : Unit Manager, Food Safety Laboratory, ANSES (Boulogne-sur-Mer)
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Pascale FABRE : Research Director, Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (L2C), UMR 5221 CNRS-Université de Montpellier (Montpellier)
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Emmanuelle GASTALDI : Senior Lecturer, University of Montpellier/UMR 1208 IATE (Montpellier)
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Jeff GHIGLIONE : Research Director, LOMIC Laboratory, UMR 7621 (Banyuls-sur-Mer)
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Régis GRIMAUD : Professor, PREM UMR5254 – UPPA/CNRS (Pau)
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Matthieu GEORGE : Senior Lecturer, Charles Coulomb Laboratory (L2C), UMR 5221 CNRS-University of Montpellier (Montpellier)
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Arnaud HUVET : Research Scientist, IFREMER LEMAR UMR CNRS 6539 (Brest)
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Fabienne LAGARDE : Lecturer, Le Mans University, IMMM UMR 6283 (Le Mans)
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Ika PAUL-PONT : Research Fellow, CNRS, University of Brest, IRD, IFREMER LEMAR (Plouzané)
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Alexandra TER HALLE : Research Associate, IMRCP, CNRS UMR 5623 (Toulouse)
INTRODUCTION
Plastics are materials obtained by combining synthetic or natural polymers, usually chemically modified, with various additives. The development of plastics in sectors as diverse as packaging, construction, the automotive industry, electronics and the medical sector, is linked to the considerable range of properties they can be used to obtain, notably by modulating the chemistry and microscopic organization of the polymers that make them up.
Yet their intensive use, combined with the poor performance of waste management systems, including end-of-life collection and recovery, has led to a massive accumulation of plastic waste in the environment, particularly in the marine environment, where it accounts for 50-80% of total waste, and sometimes even 100% in the case of floating debris. Their distribution, behavior at sea and impact are directly linked to their composition and properties of use.
This phenomenon of plastic waste accumulation is mainly linked to the exponential growth of the world's population, whose economic development has led to an explosion in global consumption, and in particular to the massive use of plastic materials whose useful life is far shorter than the time required for their biodegradation. Since their emergence in the 1950s, global plastics production has continued to rise, while the first studies revealing their presence in the sea date back to the 1960s and 1970s.
This article reviews the current state of knowledge and describes the main scientific, environmental and socio-economic issues at stake, as well as the possible solutions needed to manage an environmental problem that has become global.
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KEYWORDS
environment | plastic debris | pollution of marine environment
Pollution of oceans by plastics and microplastics
Importance of plastic at sea
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